Scott Ostler & Doc Rivers

In his weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Sunday Punch”, ScottOstler wrote about Clippers coach Doc Rivers. Rivers is currently working to keep his team on point after some alleged racist remarks by the team owner Donald Sterling.

“I already considered Rivers in elite coaching company, maybe the best in pro sports today. What about, say, Gregg Popovich? Like every coach, Popovich has an act. He plays the role of the annoyed farmer swatting at the green flies of the media.

Rivers never got the memo about acting. Either that or he's the best actor of 'em all. You go to his news conferences, you feel like Tim Taylor in "Home Improvement," talking with Wilson over the back fence. You get wisdom, information and discussion, served up with humor and humanness.

Here's Rivers recently, when asked about timeouts:

"The way I handle timeouts with our team is like this: I meet with my coaches out on the court and they tell me what they think we should do. I ignore them, go back to the bench and tell the players what I think they should do. They ignore me and go out and do whatever they want to do."

The players never ignore Rivers. They will listen to him and be ready for Game 4.”

We think about our swim coaching all the time. We learn about effective strategies by studying other coaches both in swimming and other sports. At the end of the day we all are working with our athletes regardless of the sport, working to help them improve.

“Wisdom, information and discussion, served up with humor and humanness…”

We will work diligently this week to remember those words. Thanks Scott & Doc!